Hantengu is one of the two main antagonists of the Swordsmith Village Arc which is adapted as Demon Slayer season 3 and currently running on Netflix. Akaza is already a known face, having appeared in the Infinity Train Arc. They are both parts of Muzan’s Twelve Kizuki, and are Upper Moon 4 and 3 respectively. Their close ranking position makes us wonder how a Hantengu vs Akaza fight would go.
Would Hantengu’s strongest version, Zohakuten, be powerful enough to challenge Akaza? Let’s find out. But before that, a spoiler warning is in order. Now let’s look into the powers of our both contenders individually.
Table of Contents
I. Character Profiles
1. Hantengu
One of the Twelve Kizuki and Upper Moons, Hantengu is the Upper Moon 4 demon who has been given the task of destroying the Swordsmith Village along with Gyokko. He fights against Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado, Genya Shinazugawa and Mitsuru Kanroji in the Swordsmith Village Arc.
Blood Demon Art
Hantengu’s Blood Demon Art, Emotion Manifestation grants him the ability to split himself into four clones of himself, all containing a certain emotional aspect. The clones are younger versions of himself and each has the control over a specific elemental power. When Hantengu is sliced, the clones come into manifestation through each slice.
However, Hantengu has the ability to manifest only four emotion clones. After the four are manifested, he cannot manifest any new clones anymore, rather the rest of the clones manifest as the clones of the four emotions, but with decreasing powers.
Hangentu himself is the personification of his fear. And the four emotion clones of Hangentu are Sekido, Karaku, Aizetsu and Urogi. They portray rage, pleasure, sorrow and joy respectively. Each of them holds a special power. Sekido’s power is Electrokinesis, Karaku’s Aerokinesis, Aizetsu’s Spear Projection and Urogi’s power is Sonic Scream.
After splitting into the four emotion clones, Hantengu turns into a tiny version of himself, called Urami. Urami is the size of a rat which allows him to stay hidden while his clones fight. However, Urami is not weak or helpless. He has a shockingly strong neck that even normal Nichirin Blades can’t cut through and breaks into halves instead. Not only that, he can also use the powers of the four emotion clones.
Hantengu also has another special power in which Sekido can absorb the rest of the three clones and become a younger and more powerful version known as Zohakuten. This new combined clone is stronger than the rest and can use the ability of all four clones along with his own Blood Demon Art: Wood Manipulation.
Weaknesses
- Cutting the heads of the four emotion clones at the same time increases the time it takes for them to regenerate.
- Cutting Urami’s head off will be the end of Hantengu.
2. Akaza
One of the most powerful characters in the series, Akaza is the Upper Moon 3 demon. He serves as a secondary antagonist in the Infinity Train Arc where he fights against and ultimately kills the Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku. Akaza later fights his final battle against Giyu Tomioka and Tanjiro.
Blood Demon Art
Akaza’s Blood Demon Art is called Destructive Death, which is heavily influenced by the Soryu Style, the martial arts he practiced as a human. Thanks to his Blood Demon Art, he can create powerful shockwaves by performing various Soryu Style poses. The shockwaves are strong enough to have people flying by the sheer force of it.
The true destructive power of this ability is Akaza’s mastery over the Soryu Style martial arts and his superior hand-to-hand combat skills. It doesn’t matter whether his opponent is fighting with a weapon, Akaza’s martial art skills and his powerful shockwaves are enough to dominate strong foes.
Akaza can also sense the fighting spirit of his opponent through his special technique Compass Needle. He uses this knowledge not only to assess his enemy but also to keep an eye on their location to avoid being snuck up on.
Through Destructive Death, Akaza implements a number of techniques, including:
- Air Type
- Disorder
- Compass Needle
- Annihilation Type
- Leg Type: Crown Splitter
- Leg Type: Explosive Flurry
- Leg Type: Flying Planet Thousand Wheels
- Eight-Layered Demon Core
- Crushing Type: Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow
- Final Form: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow
Weaknesses
- By entirely repressing one’s fighting spirit, one can hide their location from Akaza to stage a surprise attack.
II. Hantengu vs. Akaza
Though their rank in the Twelve Kizuki makes it look like their powers are comparable, with Hantengu being Upper Moon 4 and Akaza being Upper Moon 3, the truth is that there is a huge difference between their power levels. Akaza is faster, more agile and physically stronger than Hantengu, and has better regenerative abilities.
Even if Hantengu splits himself into his emotion clones, Akaza is more than capable of dealing with them. But he will surely face difficulties in this task. The four together could team up to overpower Akaza, but with his Blood Demon Art, he could decapitate all of them all at once.
Besides, he could also slice the head of Urami with his shockwave. Ordinary Nichirin Blades cannot cut through Urami’s neck, but with Breathing Techniques, one could accomplish the task. Blood Demon Art is also effective in this, evident when Tanjiro almost decapitated Urami with his Nichirin Blade infused with Nezuko’s Blood Demon Art.
With Akaza’s speed and efficiency, he would cut through Urami before Zohakuten could arise.
III. Zohakuten vs. Akaza: Is Zohakuten Powerful Enough to Challenge Akaza?
Zohakuten is the strongest form of Hantengu, which is only manifested when Urami, the tiny version of Hantengu, comes face-to-face with danger.
In that case, Sekido absorbs the other emotion clones and shades his skin to become Zohakuten. This version of Hantengu looks the youngest and is the most powerful with Wood Manipulation as his Blood Demon Art.
Zohakuten can implement his Wood Manipulation in a number of ways, including manifesting giant wood dragons. He can also use the Blood Demon Arts of the four emotion clones. But even then, Zohakuten will not be powerful enough to challenge Akaza.
The Upper Moon 3 demon has overwhelming speed and strength at his side. His Blood Demon Art may seem simple but it is strong enough to kill a Hashira as powerful as Rengoku.
In fact, Akaza kills Rengoku so quickly that the Flame Hashira doesn’t even get the opportunity to awaken his demon slayer mark. Even in his final battle against Tanjiro and Giyu, where Tanjiro has mastered his Hinokami Kagura and Giyu has awakened his demon slayer mark, Akaza manages to overpower them.
The same can’t be said about Zohakuten as he suffers defeat at the hands of Mitsuri after she awakens her demon slayer mark. After we look into the scenario objectively, it becomes clear that though Zohakuten is crazy strong, he’s still no match for Akaza.
Conclusion
As we see in the discussion above, despite Hantengu and his strongest version Zohakuten being one of the strongest characters in the series, Akaza is still a level above him. That’s why if there were ever a Hantengu vs Akaza fight, Akaza would turn out to be the winner.
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Anamika loves words and stories and putting them to pages. She also loves anime, manga, books, movies and everything fantasy. She has been a fan of anime since childhood and her admiration for it only grew with years. Her passion for writing is even more elevated by writing about the things she loves.
